Current technology provides many options for people to communicate with one another. For example, people may use telephones (including hardware telephones and/or ‘soft phones’ running on a computer), email applications, chat or instant messaging applications, videophones, webcams, or any other known or not-yet-known techniques for communication.
In day-to-day life, people may wish to implement many of these communication mediums or channels using, or in conjunction with, their local computing device(s). For example, a salesperson at an office desk may use a personal computer to access and utilize customer records or other work-related information, and, in so doing, may use a telephone and/or email application to communicate with the customer and/or other salespersons regarding past or potential sales.
Efforts have been made to provide integration of one or more available communication devices/channels, with one another and/or with software running on the computing device(s). For example, techniques exist for allowing users to place and conduct a telephone call from within an application, such as within a web browser or other desktop application.
In many such cases, however, it may occur that the provider of the software application (e.g., a business application such as a Customer Resource Management (CRM) application) may be unwilling or unable to provide desired communication functionality, while provider(s) of the communication channels (e.g., telephone hardware or service provider) may not have necessary expertise in providing communication functionality that is compatible with the software application. As a result, it may occur that it is difficult for either the software provider or the communications provider to provide the level of service they desire, so that the user(s) of such systems may not experience a full benefit of integration of the communications channels with one another and with the software (e.g., business) application.